By CLARE FARNSWORTH, P-I REPORTER

Published 10:00 pm, Sunday, December 7, 2008

When Seneca Wallace saw Deion Branch beat cornerback Deltha O'Neal off the line and to the inside, his immediate thought was: "Big play."

It was, but not the kind the Seahawks quarterback allowed himself to envision for that fleeting second. Instead, New England Patriots strong safety Brandon Meriweather blitzed untouched through a gap to not only sack Wallace but also force him to fumble.

As defensive end Richard Seymour corralled the loose ball with less than two minutes to play, it slapped an exclamation point on the Patriots' storm-from-behind 24-21 victory at Qwest Field -- and added to the collection of question marks that have characterized the Seahawks' 2-11 season.

The nagging query on this Sunday: What does this team have to do to win another game?

"The one thing I know, there aren't any moral victories in the NFL," free safety Brian Russell said. "So you win, or you lose. You finish the job, or you don't.

"There were parts of the game where we executed very well, but it wasn't quite enough at the end. We didn't finish, and that's frustrating. We have to find a way to get it done from start to finish."

They are, of course, running out of opportunities.

The Seahawks play Sunday at St. Louis against the 2-11 Rams. Then, it's their home finale against the New York Jets (8-5) and the season finale in Arizona against a Cardinals team that clinched the NFC West championship Sunday -- a title the Seahawks had captured the past four seasons.

In their past three home games, the Seahawks have lost by six points to the Cardinals, by three to the Washington Redskins and now by three to the Patriots. In each game, they had their hands on the ball with a last chance to pull out a victory.

Instead, Matt Hasselbeck threw interceptions against the Cardinals and Redskins and Wallace, who started Sunday because Hasselbeck's back is acting up again, coughed up the ball.

"The easy thing to write, I suppose, or to say, is that we lost another close ball game," a spent Mike Holmgren said after a loss that ensures this team -- his final one with the Seahawks -- will finish with the worst record in his 17 seasons as a head coach.

"I personally feel that this game is a lot different than that, this particular game today."

It was, in that the Seahawks scored the first time they had the ball -- driving 87 yards in 13 plays to Wallace's 14-yard touchdown pass to Branch. It was, in that the Seahawks scored on two more Wallace touchdown passes -- a 10-yarder to rookie tight end John Carlson and a 4-yarder to Branch, who was playing against his former team -- to put up more than 17 offensive points for the first time against an opponent not from the NFC West.

It was, in that the Seahawks led going into the fourth quarter for the first time since their last victory -- a 34-13 romp over the San Francisco 49ers in late October.

But then things fizzled, as they have so many times this season.

On the Patriots' final three possessions, which produced two field goals and the game-winning touchdown, Matt Cassel was 7 of 9 for 119 yards on third downs -- with three of those clutch passes going to Wes Welker, who finished with 12 receptions for 134 yards.

"He's a big-time guy, especially on third downs," cornerback Marcus Trufant said of Welker, who now has 96 receptions this season. "He knows the game. He knows how to work the technique. He knows how to find the spots to make his catches."

On the ill-fated play on which Wallace was thinking big, center Steve Vallos admitted he failed to make a little pre-snap line call that would have shifted the blocking toward the gap that became Meriweather's unobstructed avenue to Wallace.

"I have to change it when the safety comes up, and I didn't do that," said Vallos, who was making his second start because Chris Spencer went on injured reserve last week with a herniated disc.

"And that's the game."

Meriweather is a footnote in Seahawks' history. He was the player the Patriots selected with the first-round draft choice they got in the 2006 trade that sent Branch to the Seahawks.

"I think it was a bigger play for the team than it was for me," Meriweather said. "Personal glory for me really means nothing. We came out and started out slowly, which is something we never want to do. But we persevered together."

Perseverance has been as elusive as victories for the Seahawks.

Like on that last play. The Patriots showed a blitz they had run two other times. Each time, Wallace called timeout. The third time was anything but charming for the Seahawks.

"When I dropped back, I saw Deion out of the corner of my eye -- he beat him inside," Wallace said. "So it probably would have been a big play for us."

Added Branch: "I wish we had had time to throw it. It didn't work out. We had just spoken right before. ... They gave us what we wanted, but we just couldn't block it."